The Work of Catechising

And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house. ACTS 20:20

Here is the practice that made Kidderminster famous, and it is the most transferable thing Baxter ever did. He and his assistant set aside two full days every week for personal instruction. Families came to his house by appointment, one household at a time. He went through the essentials of the Christian faith with them, asked what they understood, corrected what they had wrong, and dealt with each person about the state of their own soul. They worked through around fourteen families a week and covered the whole parish — some eight hundred families — in a year. Then they began again.

Why preaching was not enough

Baxter loved preaching and was good at it. His argument was not against it but about its limits. From a pulpit you cannot tell what has been understood. People sit through sermons for decades, nodding, and turn out on examination to hold a confused folk-religion assembled from fragments. Baxter reported the experience of discovering that respectable parishioners of long standing could not say who Christ was or what He had done, having heard him preach both weekly for years. Personal instruction solves this because it is two-way. The person has to answer. Their actual understanding becomes visible, and you can address what is genuinely there rather than what you assumed.

Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. COLOSSIANS 1:28

Baxter noticed that Paul says every man three times in one verse, and concluded that the apostolic method was individual as well as public.

What he found

His reported results were startling and he was careful about them. He said that he learned more about his people in one hour of personal conversation than in years of preaching to them, and that more apparent conversions followed this work than followed his public ministry — though he added, honestly, that the preaching had prepared much of what the conversation harvested. He also found the work humbling. Ministers who take it up generally discover that their preaching has been aimed at a congregation that does not exist: better informed, more attentive and less confused than the actual people in the pews.

The practicalities

Baxter was characteristically detailed about the method, and the details are what make it usable. Give them something first. He supplied each family with a printed catechism ahead of the visit, so they knew what would be discussed and could prepare. He bought these and distributed them himself. Take them one household at a time. Privacy matters. People will not admit ignorance in front of neighbours, and will not discuss their souls in a crowd. Begin with knowledge, and move to the conscience. Establish what they understand, then apply it personally — what does this mean for you, and where are you in relation to it? Be gentle with the ignorant. Baxter insisted on this. Shaming a person for not knowing something guarantees they will never tell you the truth again. Keep records, so that the next round can build on the last.

And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way. DEUTERONOMY 6:7

The objections he answered

He anticipated the excuses, and they are still the ones we use. There is no time. Baxter’s reply was that there is time for whatever we consider essential, and that a man who cannot find two days a week for the souls in his charge should examine what the other days are going to. The people will not come. At Kidderminster nearly all of them did, once it was explained and expected. He acknowledged that in other places they might not, and answered that a minister is responsible for offering, not for the response. It is not my gift. Baxter regarded this as the least respectable of the objections. The work does not require unusual gifts. It requires knowing the faith, caring about people, and being willing to spend the hours.

Most readers of this book are not clergy, and the practice adapts. Any believer can do this with one other person: a child, a new convert, a friend who is curious, someone in the congregation younger than themselves. Take a short catechism or a book of the Bible, meet regularly, ask what they understand rather than telling them what they should, and press it home gently. It is the least glamorous method in Christian history, and it has a better record than most of the others.

What to teach

Baxter was specific about the content of personal instruction, and his structure is worth having because it prevents the whole exercise from wandering. He worked from the traditional four heads, which Protestants and Catholics alike had used for generations and which cover the ground with remarkable economy. The Creed — what a Christian believes. Who God is, what He has done in creation and redemption, who Christ is, what the Spirit does, what the church is, and what is coming. The Ten Commandments — how a Christian lives. Baxter used these not as a ladder to be climbed but as a mirror, to show a person his need, and then as a map, to show him the shape of obedience. The Lord’s Prayer — what a Christian asks for. He found this the most useful of the four for exposing the state of a heart, since what a person wants reveals more than what he professes. And the sacraments — baptism and the Lord’s Supper, what they mean and what is required of those who come.

Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 2 TIMOTHY 1:13

The great advantage of a fixed structure is that it prevents a teacher from following his own enthusiasms. Left to ourselves we teach what interests us, and whole areas go untouched for years. A settled framework guarantees that everyone receives the whole of it. Baxter added one instruction that governs the rest: do not merely establish that a person can repeat the words. Ask what each clause means, and what difference it makes to them. A parishioner who could recite the Creed perfectly and had no idea what any of it signified was, in his experience, the commonest discovery of all.

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Choose one person and begin meeting with them regularly to go through the Christian faith. Start this month. 2. Ask questions rather than delivering content. You cannot address what you have not discovered. 3. Give them something to prepare from — a catechism, a book, a passage — so the meeting has a spine. 4. Be gentle with ignorance. Shame ends honesty permanently. 5. If you lead a church, audit how much of your ministry is one-directional. Then change one thing about your diary.

A PRAYER

Lord, I have spoken a great deal and discovered very little about what the people around me actually believe.

Give me the patience for the slow work — one person at a time, asking rather than telling, learning what is really there before I try to correct it.

Make me gentle with those who know little. Let no one be ashamed to admit their ignorance to me.

And give me the diligence to keep at it when it is unremarkable and nobody is watching. Amen.